Over 100,000 motorcycles sold under the brand name GOLD WING(copyright) have been manufactured since 1988 by Honda, Inc., with the transmission having a gear position switch for sensing the gear in which the transmission is operating. The gear position switch has an output in electrical communication with a central processing unit (xe2x80x9cCPUxe2x80x9d) of the motorcycle. The motorcycle is equipped to sense the output of the gear position switch to determine if the motorcycle is in neutral to allow the starting system to start the motorcycle. There is no gear indication displayed to the motorcycle driver as to the particular gear in which the transmission is currently operating except an xe2x80x9cNxe2x80x9d appears on a display when the transmission is in neutral and an xe2x80x9cODxe2x80x9d when the transmission is in 5th gear or overdrive. The gear position switch connects via a five lead connector at a connection with a receiving five lead connection to the motorcycle CPU at an accessible and detachable connection in the wiring harness of this motorcycle.
One safety feature which may be provided to the driver of a motorcycle is a visual gear indicator. Motorcycle transmissions may be shifted between a number of gears. The driver should know the particular gear in which the motorcycle is operating in certain circumstances. For instance, when a motorcycle driver needs to rapidly accelerate, the driver will often downshift in order to increase torque to accelerate. The driver may inadvertently downshift more than one gear. Failure to realize this event may create a safety hazard since the operator may over-rev the engine without achieving the desired acceleration. Furthermore, the driver may think a downshift has occurred when the transmission has not downshifted. Accordingly, the current gear may lack the necessary torque to accelerate a desired amount. By having a gear indicator on the motorcycle displaying the gear that the motorcycle is in, the operator would have the capability of quickly reading the gear in which the motorcycle is currently operating. The motorcycle driver no longer need to remember, or otherwise guess, the gear the transmission is operating.
At least one other major motorcycle manufacturer, Kawasaki, Inc., has developed a mechanical gear indicator wherein the transmission is mechanically coupled to a gear indicator which indicates the gear to a driver. It is believed that it would be relatively expensive and difficult to partially disassemble a transmission to install a similar mechanical linkage means which would cooperate with a mechanical gear indicator for the above mentioned Honda motorcycle. Accordingly a need exists for a gear indicator which would indicate the current gear of the motorcycle to a rider which can interpret the electrical signal provided from the gear position switch to the motorcycle CPU.
The only two current known uses by the motorcycle CPU of the gear position switch connector are (1) to process whether or not the motorcycle is in neutral to determine if it is in a proper condition to start the motorcycle, and (2) display an xe2x80x9cNxe2x80x9d when in neutral on a display and (3) display an xe2x80x9cODxe2x80x9d for overdrive. Accordingly since one of the five leads provides a predetermined signal when the switch senses neutral, the motorcycle CPU interprets this data to provide the appropriate setting to allow an operator to start the motorcycle. Nevertheless, no indication is provided to the operator as to the current forward moving gear in which the motorcycle is operating other than the top gear of xe2x80x9cODxe2x80x9d for this motorcycle.
The present invention provides for a gear indicator which displays the current gear in which the motorcycle is operating to a driver of a motorcycle equipped with a gear position switch. The gear indicator has a connection which receives the five leads from the gear position switch of the motorcycle and bridges that signal on to the five position connector to the motorcycle CPU. While bridging the gear indicator to the CPU, the signals are also sent via a five lead harness to a gear indicator processor. The processor interprets which, if any, of the five leads are showing a signal. If none of the five leads indicate a signal, then the gear indicator assigns a first gear indication. If any one of the five leads reports a signal, then that respective signal is processed by the processor to provide a gear indication signal at a display. The preferred embodiment also includes a voltage meter since the gear indicator meter is preferably driven by the motorcycle""s battery, and the voltage is accessible for measurement by this device.